A Down Year for April Fools

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By: Mike Bush

Over the years, April Fools' Day has been home to some of the funnier meme generators on the web. Gmail may actually qualify as the best of the best. For those of you too young to remember, the service was announced on April 1, 2004, and most people who saw it said "man, that’s funny, no company could EVER offer an entire GB of storage for free." A few days later, people were stunned to find out that it wasn’t a prank, but a legit offering. (Yeah, the web was a different place a decade ago.)

This year, however, seemed to be different. To wit:

Inbox filling with 1 April press releases. Not seen one that’s even vaguely amusing yet.
— Paul Miller (@PaulMiller) March 31, 2015

Paul wrote that in March.

Is it Fools' Fatigue?

Are too many flacks forgetting to leave the funny to people who are, you know, actually funny? Are clients without a sense of humor asking to get into the fun, despite legal departments cutting the fun out of the day? Maybe the Internet just plain ruined April Fools' Day.

Let’s go to the tape:

Selfie Humor seemed to be a theme this year. Honda, ThinkGeek, and Petco were among the companies that jumped into this one.
Google launched Pac-Man for Google Maps; not a prank per se, but a heck of an Easter Egg.
Finally, there was this little ditty from AirPR. Seriously, guys, I love you and all, but as the purported “top 1%” of PR people, that’s what you came up with? On behalf of the alleged other 99%...yeesh.

Maybe it’s because there wasn’t a standout “winner” this year…the web’s not buzzing over one particular company…but somehow, it seemed like this year was a dud for April Fools' day.

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About the Author

Mike Bush is a PR and Marketing freelancer with more than a dozen years of experience in the field. Find him on and connect Twitter @mikebush or at www.mikebush.nyc.

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